Carnivorous plants are an interesting extraordinary phenomenon, when representatives of flora and fauna suddenly change places, and a delicate flower becomes a hunter, able to patiently wait for prey and quickly destroy it. Nearly 300 predator plant species have been recorded.
They belong to a variety of families and are common in many climatic zones - from the deserts of the Arctic to the tropics. These amazing plants also live in the Russian expanses. Such insectivorous representatives of the plant kingdom include round-leaved sundew - one of the genus of carnivorous plants of the sundew family, living in swamps, in sandy and mountainous areas. The article is dedicated to her.
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This pretty grass is found on any type of soil, but more often it can be seen on raised bogs, where there is no soil in the normal sense of the word, but only peat and sphagnum moss. All plants belonging to the sundew genus, including the round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia l), are insectivorous. The name is given to the plant because of the droplets.a clear liquid that appears on the thin hairs that cover the leaves.
Today, almost one and a half hundred species of sundews are known, and all of them are predators. A similar feature in plants of this genus appeared not at the whim of nature, but because of the need to get food in the most direct sense, since they grow on poor marshy or sandy soils, in which there are practically no nutrients.
Leaves like a trapping mechanism
What description of the type of Sundew round-leaved give reference books? The adaptability of the plant to catching insects is impressive. Longer reddish hairs located along the edges of the leaves produce a sticky substance containing the alkaloid coniine, which paralyzes insects that have the imprudence to sit on an insidious leaf. A fly falling on a leaf firmly sticks to it, and the plant does not doze - the edges of the leaf slowly twist, completely covering the prey.
The inside of the leaf is lined with shorter hairs containing substances identical to digestive enzymes. They begin to act when the sheet is twisted. The immobilized insect soon dies, and the leaf gradually assimilates it. In a similar way, the round-leaved sundew makes up for the catastrophic lack of minerals necessary for development, but absent in the places of their distribution. The unique grass shows miracles of survival in the swamps and, having adapted to difficult conditions, develops excellently.
Round-leaved sundew: description
This grassyperennial - a plant with amazing adaptive ability, adapted to winter in a special way - before wintering, it forms buds that go deep into the thickness of the moss, so it is impossible to see the plant already in October.
And in the spring, when the snow melts, one-year-old shoots appear from them - thin and not very long. On top of the sphagnum, a pressed leaf rosette is formed, in which there can be up to a dozen leaves located on long (up to 5-8 cm) petioles. The rounded shape of the leaf gave the name to the type of round-leaved sundew. The leaflet is small, reaching 1 cm in diameter, pubescent with a huge number of hairs and has a green or reddish tint. Its color depends on the degree of illumination - the more light, the greener the leaf.
Flowering and reproduction
Despite the fact that the round-leaved sundew appears immediately after the snow melts, flowering occurs unusually late - only in the middle of summer. For a predatory, but insect-pollinated plant, nature has thought of the safest way - sundew flower stalks are extended by 25-30 cm, and arriving bees do not fall on the leaves, usually lying on the surface of the soil. Small white or slightly pinkish flowers, single or collected in a small inflorescence or tassel, bloom at the top of the peduncle.
The flower has five petals and has nectaries to attract insect pollinators. Pollinated flowers form boxes with seeds, the full maturation of whichtakes place at the beginning of September. The box is opened, the seeds scatter over the surface of the swamp, burrow into the sphagnum and germinate the next spring, repeating the traditional life cycle.
Carnivorous plant round-leaved sundew: application
Sundews are famous not only for their unusual way of life and habitat. The first documentary evidence of their healing properties is the work of English scientists of the 17th century. Then the valuable property of the plant was noticed - to suppress and cure cough.
The chemical composition of the plant is remarkable: it contains a number of organic, phenopolycarboxylic acids, calcium and potassium s alts, tannins and dyes, flavonoids and fineness. But the main feature is the presence of naphthoquinone derivatives - droserone and plumbagin, which can suppress the development of pathogenic bacteria and fungi, in particular whooping cough pathogens.
The use of this plant in traditional medicine is associated with the substances that make up its composition. Sundew has expectorant, diuretic and anti-inflammatory properties, and is used to relax smooth muscles.
Drugs based on this herb are most often prescribed for bronchitis, asthma, whooping cough, tracheitis.
Use in traditional medicine
Traditional medicine uses the properties of sundew much more widely, using it not only for lung diseases. Using tinctures and decoctions, they practice the treatment of atherosclerosis (including the coronary vessels of the heart), epilepticseizures, candidiasis, colds, fevers and headaches.
The most effective is the use of sundew preparations as an integral part in herbal preparations. For example, its effect is increased if the plant is used in combination with violet and plantain.
Do not stand aside and homeopathy. Successfully using the qualities of plants such as round-leaved sundew, euphorbia, juniper, this area of medicine, in addition to treating respiratory diseases, practices external use for skin diseases of various origins. For example, warts are treated by applying fresh leaves to them with the inside.
Features of preparation and application
The entire aerial part of the plant is recognized as medicinal. Its harvesting is recommended during flowering. Dry in ventilated areas. You can also use special dryers, setting the temperature during drying no higher than 40 ° C. Keep grass in cotton bags for no more than two years.
It is important to remember that the use of sundew preparations involves:
• precise adherence to the dosage, since exceeding it will cause negative consequences - vomiting, disruption of the digestive tract, diarrhea;
• Careful and exclusively external use of freshly picked leaves.
Intensive use in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the widespread drainage of swamps, have led to the fact that today such a unique plant as round-leaved sundew is on the verge of extinction. Red Bookstands on the protection of the plant, controlling the seasonal harvest, but it is worth it for everyone to think about it and not pluck it unnecessarily.
How to grow sundew at home
The picky sundew can be successfully grown at home by sowing seeds that can be harvested in the fall, or by transplanting the plant with a small patch of soil on which it grew in nature.
The best substrate suitable for sundew is a mixture of peat and sand in equal proportions, imitating the natural composition. It is advisable to ensure that the plant is watered from below by placing a container with sundew in a pan with water. It is impossible to spray the plant, the decorative effect that it possesses will disappear. Sundew and top dressing are not needed, additional nutrition can harm her. Proper care of the plant consists only in good moisture and the right composition of the soil. If these conditions are met, the round-leaved sundew will bloom on the windowsill in the summer, delighting the grower with delicate flowers.
